Composite components are often manufactured using thermoset or thermoplastic materials, which may be formed into tapes or sheets having carbon fibers that are conventionally arranged in a unidirectional configuration. The resulting unidirectional tape may be cut into smaller pieces, or flakes, which are typically square or approximately square. These flakes are placed in a mold reservoir where heat and pressure are applied to force the flakes into all cavities of the mold. Once cured, the resulting component is removed from the mold.
This conventional compression molding technique may create an undesirable variance in the strength of resulting components according to the arrangement of the flakes as they are pushed throughout the mold. As the flakes are deposited in the mold reservoir, they tend to stack up such that they lay on top of one another with the large flat sides of the flakes abutting one another, similar to the manner in which books would stack on top of one another if tossed into a pile on a flat surface. This common stacking phenomenon may be referred to as laminar stacking. As the laminar stacks of flakes are pushed throughout the mold, the orientation of the stacks may change, but the flakes ultimately remain substantially stacked. When subjected to tensional loads in the through-thickness direction (or z-direction if the flakes are oriented in an x-y plane), the flakes are inclined to separate or delaminate since there are relatively no fibers oriented in the through-thickness direction. The result of this laminar stacking orientation being pushed through the component mold is a potentially weak area in the final component.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.